Does anyone else have a problem with Excel *.xls files
changing size when being attached to Outlook EMails? Is
this still a problem in Office 2003?

Problem: Attachment Size is not properly maintained
during Attach and Detach processing.

Platform: Office, Excel, Outlook 2002 MSDN version with
all current updates. Windows Server 2003 with all current
updates.

Steps to repeat the bug:

1. Open Excel, save the default blank Book1.xls (size =
13,824 bytes in my setup)
2. Open Outlook, create a New EMail Message
3. Attach the Book1.xls from step 1 to the message.
4. Observe that the Attachment Size is reported as 19k
instead of 13 or 14k - the original size.
5. Send the EMail Message to a bogus account (this
eliminates the possibility that the problem is an EMail
Server or transmission issue). The problem manifests
itself regardless of EMail Server or network topology, so
you can use a good email address if you are confident the
server is not a factor.
6. Open the SENT EMail copy, or a Inbox received EMail
with the attachment and observe that the size is still 19k.
7. Detach the Book1.xls and observe the file size
reported by the file's properties is now larger than the
original file size. (16,384 in my case).

The bug is that this file size should have been preserved!

Cross checks of my systems with multiple up-to-date
antivirus software show no indications.

In the case of the Book1.xls and Excel files in general,
loading the xls file and saving it again restores the
original size -- 99% of the time! I discovered the bug
when a client complained they could not open one of my
*.xls files.

Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing the same
or similar problem with attachments. Please let me know
if anyone has found a solution to this problem or if it
has been corrected in Office 2003.

Thanks,

AJStadlin
ISV Empower Subscriber